Its research director, Suraya Ismail, said the measures could also incur opportunity costs on government finances that might otherwise be used more productively, Bernama reported today.
She said the intervention in the housing market had largely been related to the demand side, by making housing financing cheaper or providing subsidies for homebuyers.
“Sophisticated/innovative financing packages and cash transfers are provided to homebuyers to buy houses they could not afford,” she said.
She said intervention on the supply side was via direct provision of low-cost houses or subsidising housing costs.
She said evidence seemed to suggest that it was far more efficient to enhance capacity in the supply side, to develop a sustainable and responsive housing sector that catered for all sections of the population.
Suraya said this in a statement today in conjunction with the Ninth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF9) held here from Feb 7 to 13.
She said provision of affordable homes remained a major problem among policymakers worldwide, with Malaysia being no exception.
Malaysia’s policy initiatives that focused on ensuring affordable housing had typically involved the transfer of physical or financial resources to low-income households.
The scarcity of such resources would then force the government housing agencies to focus on a small and limited housing agenda and stymy efforts to understand or manage the housing sector as a whole, she said.
Suraya also said demand for affordable housing in Malaysia would increase as the country became more urbanised.
She said the trend indicated that both the bottom 40% and middle 40% of income earners were likely to require some form of social housing if relevant interventions were not put in place urgently.
Khazanah Institute project helps low-income group stay in city centres